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華萊士‧斯泰格納
(WALLACE STEGNER)
保留自然環境的想法
The Wilderness Idea
我們作為一個民族將會永遠失去某種東西，如果我們讓現存的自然保護區被毀。
華萊士‧斯泰格納(1909─
)生於洛瓦，畢業於猶他大學。他是個多產作家，寫了多部小說及各種各樣的非虛構作品。他的小說曾榮獲普利茲獎和全國圖書獎。他的非虛構作品包括幾部反映他對自然和西部的熱愛的書(《這是恐龍》、《狼柳》和《山水聲》)。《保留自然環境的想法》一文取自《山水聲》(1969)。
……我想要為之辯護的是……保留自然環境的想法，它本身便是一種資源。作為一種無形的、精神的資源，它對注重實際的人似乎顯得十分神秘──不過任何用推土機無法移動的東西對他們都可能顯得難以理解。
我想為保留自然環境的想法辯護，該想法有助於我們性格的形成，當然它塑造了我們作為一個民族的歷史。……
我們作為一個民族將會永遠失去某種東西，如果我們讓現存的自然保護區被毀；如果讓最後的原始森林變成一堆連環畫冊和塑膠煙盒；如果我們把野生動物所剩無幾的種類驅入動物園或使其滅絕；如果我們污染最後的潔淨空氣，玷污最後的清澈溪流，把我們的公路鋪設到最後的寧靜區域。以致美國人在自己的國家裏將再也躲不開噪音、廢氣、人的體臭和機動車廢棄物。這樣，我們就再也沒有機會讓自己在世界上悠然獨處，成為由樹木、岩石、泥土組成的環境的一部分，成為其他動物的兄弟，成為自然界的一部分而且有資格屬於大自然。失去了剩餘的自然保護區，我們將無以稍作思考、休息片刻，勢必一頭鑽進我們機械的、白蟻般的生活，徹底投入「美妙的新世界」即完全由人控制的環境。我們需要保存自然保護區──所有現存的各種各樣的自然保護區，因為我們作為一個民族的特性正是迎著這一挑戰形成的。能提醒我們並證實自然保護區仍然存在有益於我們的精神健康，即使我們在十年中從未涉足其間。當我們年輕時，它對我們有益，因為它能通過假期和休養將短暫的清醒帶入我們瘋狂的生活。當我們年邁時，它對我們十分重要，僅只因為它的存在──也就是說，僅僅作為想法就很重要。
附註：
. . . What I
want to speak for is. . . the wilderness idea, which is a resource in itself.
Being an intangible and spiritual resource, it will seem mystical to the
practical-minded－but
then anything that cannot be moved by a bulldozer is likely to seem mystical to
them.
I want to
speak for the wilderness idea as something that has helped form our character
and that has certainly shaped our history as a people....
Something
will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be
destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books
and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild
species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty
the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence,
so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise,
the exhausts, the stink of human and automotive waste. And so that never again
can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and
individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil,
brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong
in it. Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance
for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our
technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled
environment. We need wilderness preserved－as
much of it as is still left, and as many kinds－because
it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. The
reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual
health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it. It is good for us when
we are young, because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as
vacation and rest. into our in-sane lives. It is important to us when we are old
simply because it is there－important,
that is, simply as idea.
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